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Anne Graham Lotz: Christians must rely on Holy Spirit’s power amid ‘moral and spiritual free fall’

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Tenn. — Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the late Billy Graham, urged Christians to seek the power of the Holy Spirit to combat the “moral and spiritual free fall” taking place in the United States.

Speaking at the Closing Gala Dinner at NRB’s 2020 Christian Media Convention on Feb. 28, Lotz, president of AnGeL Ministries in Raleigh, North Carolina, highlighted the aspects of the Holy Spirit found in John 16:5-15.

She stressed that the Holy Spirit is a “person,” not an “it.”

“He’s not a dove. He’s not a flame of fire. He’s not an ecstatic experience. The Holy Spirit is a divine, invisible person. He has a mind to think. He has a will to act. He has emotions to feel,” she said, adding that the Holy Spirit is present in all believers.

“When we come by faith to the cross, claim Jesus as our Savior and our Lord, open up our hearts and receive Him into ourselves, He comes into us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He will never leave us, and He will never forsake us. It’s a permanent relationship. Praise God,” she said.

“Today, in our politically correct culture, as we’re in this moral and spiritual free fall in our nation, it’s going to take Holy Spirit courage, boldness, and strength to stand against that tide and hold the line for the Gospel and the Word of God,” she added.

In an age where truth is relative, Lotz reminded attendees that John 16:13 refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth.”

“So get out the Word, read it, take it in for yourself, and then get it out as much as you can. He works through the Word that He has breathed Himself. … Read the Word with a heart that believes every word is from the Lord, and you listen for Him to whisper to you through the pages.”

The more Christians delve into Scripture, the more they will become like Christ, she added.

“In Jesus, there’s no meanness,” she said. “There’s no unkindness. There’s no selfishness. There’s no unforgiveness. There’s no pridefulness. There’s no bitterness. There’s no sinfulness at all. And when the Holy Spirit comes into you and me, He begins to make us holy as He is holy.”

The Holy Spirit prays for us when we don’t have words to pray (Romans 8:26), the evangelist said, adding: “The Holy Spirit takes my cries before the Father. He puts words to them, dresses them up, and turns them into prayers. He can take what I’m feeling and thinking — how I’m hurting on the inside — and translate it into a prayer before the Father.”

“The Holy Spirit’s priority is the written Word of God,” she concluded. “He draws us into the written Word that we might know the Living Word. His priority is Jesus, and He wants us to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to obey Jesus, to serve Jesus, to bring Him glory. So He draws us into the Word of God that we might know Him like that.”

Lotz, who finished treatment for breast cancer in October of last year, shares how the Holy Spirit comforted her throughout the painful process in her book, Jesus in Me: Experiencing the Holy Spirit as a Constant Companion.

As she traveled from appointment to appointment, Lotz said she felt the Holy Spirit give her a “sense of purpose.”

“Again and again, I was stopped by other patients or visitors who recognized me, people who said they were praying for me or who asked me to pray for them,” she said.

“I had multiple opportunities to share the Gospel and to pray with nurses, technicians, doctors, and many others who treated me. His whisper changed my attitude from that of being a cancer victim to being on a mission as His ambassador.”

After her sixth chemo treatment, the evangelist began questioning whether she should continue chemo: “The weakness and weariness were debilitating. The side effects were daunting,” she explained.

However, she felt the Holy Spirit confirm to her that she was to continue chemo. “My next and last treatment would be my seventh time! So as much as I resisted the ‘muck and mud,’ in obedience to God’s leading, I co­mmitted to complete the seventh infusion,” she said.

Those two examples, the founder of AnGel Ministries said, are just a “few of the Spirit’s whispers to my heart.”

“Would I have made the same decisions without what He had said? Would I have had the same perseverance, courage, comfort, and direction if I had not read my Bible, listening for His voice? I don’t think so,” she said.

“Yes, I would have survived. But like many others, I would have been just guessing my way through life, afraid I would take a wrong turn and very probably doing so. Instead, the Spirit’s whispers have enabled me to live with energetic confidence, making very few costly mistakes.”

Based on her experiences, Lotz encouraged others to “read your Bible. Every day. Study it. Learn to love it. Live by it.”

“Listen for the whisper of the Spirit, who speaks through the pages of the Word that He Himself has inspired and through the words on the pages, which are God-breathed,” she concluded.

Sources: Christian Post

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ENANCHORED ഒരുക്കുന്ന യുവജന മീറ്റിംഗ് UKയിൽ

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ENANCHORED ൻ്റെ ആഭിമുഖ്യത്തിൽ യുകെ Seaham Sunderland യൂത്ത് സെൻ്ററിൽ വെച്ച് യുവജന മീറ്റിംഗ് ഒക്ടോബർ 26 ന് രാവിലെ 9:30 മുതൽ വൈകിട്ട് 4 മണി വരെ നടത്തപ്പെടും. ജെയ്സൺ ജെയിംസ്, ജിബിൻ എബ്രഹാം, ശാലോം ജേക്കബ് എന്നിവർ ശുശ്രൂഷിക്കും. 13 വയസ്സ് മുതൽ 30 വയസു_വരെയുള്ള യൗവനക്കാർക്ക് വേണ്ടിയുള്ള പ്രോഗ്രാം ആണ് നടക്കുന്നത്. മ്യൂസിക്, ഗെയിംസ്, ഡിസ്കഷൻസ്, ബൈബിൾ സ്റ്റഡി, ചോദ്യോത്തര പരിപാടി, ലൗ ഫീസ്റ്റ് എന്നിവയാണ് യൗവനക്കാർക്ക് വേണ്ടി ഒരുക്കിയിരിക്കുന്നത്. ബ്രദർ , എൽവിൻ ഡാനിയേൽ ഈ പ്രോഗ്രാമിന് നേതൃത്വം കൊടുക്കുന്നു.
Sources:gospelmirror

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22 മത് മലയാളി പെന്തക്കോസ്റ്റൽ അസോസിയേഷൻ നാഷണൽ കോൺഫറൻസ് 2025 ഇംഗ്ലണ്ടിലെ ബ്രിസ്റ്റോൾ പട്ടണത്തിൽ.

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യൂറോപ്പിലെ മലയാളി പെന്തകോസ്ത് സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ആത്‌മീയ സംഗമമായ 22 മത്‌ എം പി എ യു കെ യുടെ നാഷണൽ കോൺഫ്രൻസ് ഇംഗ്ലണ്ടിലെ ബ്രിസ്റ്റോൾ പട്ടണത്തിൽ വെlച്ച് 2025 ഏപ്രിൽ 18, 19, 20 തീയതികളിൽ നടത്തപ്പെടുന്നു. മലയാളി പെന്തകോസ്റ്റൽ അസോസിയേഷൻ പ്രസിഡന്റ് റവ ബിനോയ് എബ്രഹാം ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്യുന്ന കോൺഫ്രൻസിൽ ദൈവവചന ശുശ്രുഷക്കായി പാസ്റ്റർ ബി മോനച്ചൻ മുഖ്യ പ്രസംഗികനായിരിക്കും. എം പി എ ക്വയർ ആരാധനകൾക്ക് നേതൃത്വം നൽകുന്നു. യുവജനങ്ങൾക്കും സഹോദരിമാർക്കും പ്രത്യേക സെക്ഷനും നടത്തപ്പെടും. ഞായറാഴ്ച പൊതു ആരാധനയോടെ അവസാനിക്കും
ഇത്തവണത്തെ കോൺഫ്രൻസിൽ യുവ തലമുറയുടെ കൂടുതൽ പങ്കാളിത്തത്തോടെ കൂടുതൽ മികവാർന്ന നിലയിൽ നടത്തുന്നതിനുള്ള ക്രമീകരണങ്ങൾ നടന്നു വരുന്നു. കോൺഫറൻസിന്റെ വിജയത്തിനായി ജനറൽ കമ്മറ്റിയിൽ പാസ്റ്റർ സാംകുട്ടി പാപ്പച്ചൻ (വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ്), പാസ്റ്റർ ഡിഗോൾ ലൂയിസ് (സെക്രട്ടറി), പാസ്റ്റർ പി സി സേവ്യർ (ജോ: സെക്രട്ടറി), പാസ്റ്റർ ജിനു മാത്യു (ട്രഷറർ) എന്നിവർ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾ വിലയിരുത്തി. കൂടുതൽ ക്രമീകരണങ്ങൾ പിന്നീട് അറിയിക്കുന്നതായിരിക്കും.
Sources:Middleeast Christian Youth Ministries

http://theendtimeradio.com

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How former atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali found peace in Christ

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When you hear the term New Atheism, you may think of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. But you are probably less familiar with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who stood right by their side in strongly denouncing Christianity. This influential scholar and intellectual was essentially the fifth most prominent new atheist behind Hitchens, Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.

Hirsi Ali was raised as a Muslim in Somalia. But she eventually began to oppose forced marriage, honor killing, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. Ayaan renounced her Islamic faith and became an atheist. She moved to the Netherlands at the age of 23 and rose to become a top-ranking politician.

Hirsi Ali’s books, Infidel: My Life (2007) and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015) became bestsellers. But rejecting Islam and embracing atheism still left her soul feeling empty, in spite of the fact that “Hirsi Ali was a central figure in New Atheism since its beginnings.”

Last year, Hirsi Ali announced that she had become a Christian, which of course shocked her atheist friends. But it wasn’t intellectual arguments that ultimately convinced Hirsi Ali to embrace Christianity. It was what happened when she humbled herself before the God of the universe. Hirsi Ali prayed fervently and cried out to the Lord for help.

In a friendly discussion & debate with Richard Dawkins a few months ago, Ayaan explained her journey: “I had a personal crisis … I lived for about a decade with intense depression and anxiety, self-loathing. I hit rock bottom. I went to a place where I actually didn’t want to live anymore, but I wasn’t brave enough to take my own life. I was self-medicating. Over a long period of time, I saw psychiatrists and other doctors. I was trying to understand my condition and I was trying to treat it with the help of pure evidence-based science.”

Hirsi Ali continued, “I saw one therapist who said, ‘Perhaps you have something else.’ She described it as ‘spiritual bankruptcy,’ and that resonated with me. And having reached a place where I had absolutely nothing to lose, I prayed, and I prayed desperately. And for me, that was a turning point. And what happened after that is a miracle in its own right.”

Hirsi Ali learned the painful lesson that Islam provides no inner peace, but only brutality and fear, especially for women and young girls. Likewise, she discovered firsthand that atheism also leaves your soul feeling empty. Ayaan was terribly unfulfilled, in spite of her close friendships with Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett. Atheism simply did not satisfy the deep longings within her, and even brought her to the brink of suicide.

Dawkins finds it next to impossible to see where Hirsi Ali is coming from today. She has tried to help him understand that there are “different planes of perception.” She compares it to her inability to perceive the significance of Jackson Pollock’s abstract impressionist art. Where one person perceives brilliance, another is left perplexed as to its beauty.

Hirsi Ali said, “When I was an atheist, I was going all over the United States and Europe, mocking Christians, making fun of them, making fun of faith, as you’re doing now dear Richard. I was walking with six to seven men at any given time, protecting me, armed, from things that I said that were offensive to Muslims. Christians were writing me letters saying, ‘We’re going to pray for you. You are misguided.’ And I think that alone defines for me the distinction between mainstream Christianity and mainstream Islam.”

Hirsi Ali is learning that not only does Christ bring peace to your soul when you accept Him as Savior, but Jesus actually turns His followers into peace-loving people who pray for their enemies, rather than taking up arms against them.

Dawkins asked Hirsi Ali, “You don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, surely?” She said, “I choose to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.” Every follower of Christ believes in the Lord’s death on the cross for our sins, as well as His resurrection from the dead. Hirsi Ali then said, “It has to go back to, ‘Is there something or is there nothing?'” Dawkins obviously believes there is nothing, which is precisely what his ideology provides for those who choose atheism. Hirsi Ali admitted, “For years I agreed with you that there is nothing.”

Dawkins chose to blurt out this sarcastic and blasphemous comment about Christianity: “The idea that God couldn’t think of a better way to forgive the sins of humanity than to have His Son crucified. That is a disgusting idea.”

How can Dawkins remain so blind to the truth? He is hardening his heart and deliberating sinning against the Holy Spirit by continually rejecting God’s plan of salvation. Sadly, Dawkins may have already reached his personal point of no return. Many wondered the same thing about Hitchens, which I addressed in a CP op-ed earlier this year: “Christopher Hitchens Now Realizes God is Great.”

How are we to understand these different planes of perception? The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “The man without the (Holy) Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them” (1 Corinthians 2:14). “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Richard Dawkins remains on a much lower plane of perception than Hirsi Ali. The only way to gain what I refer to as “sanctified reason” is to do what Hirsi Ali did when she humbled herself before Almighty God in prayer. It requires humility to “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). When Dawkins referred to Christ’s crucifixion as a “disgusting idea,” Hirsi Ali gently responded, “God gave us free will.”

By the grace of God, Hirsi Ali was “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son, He (the Father) loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). And there is no greater peace than having a relationship with your Creator and knowing that your sins are forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ who “died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

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